Friday, May 13, 2011

I love John Pogacnik's bird reports from his "yard". Those of you who follow the Ohio Birds Listserv will certainly know of the man via his regular reporting. And those of you who have been longtime active birders in these parts probably know the man himself.

Anyway, John lives in a house that offers sweeping vistas of Lake Erie, east of Cleveland. He's done much to enhance his terrestrial patch, too, by installing numerous feeders, boxes, likeable plant material, etc. All of this diversity of habitat, much of it visible from his sunroom, has allowed John to accumulate what must easily be the wildest - and probably largest - yard list in the state of Ohio. Bet you don't have Black-legged Kittiwake, King Eider, or Purple Sandpiper on your "yard list"!

So, I open one of John's missives last Tuesday to see a yard report that was massive even by Pogacnikian standards. Try this on: 240 Pine Siskins; 200 Baltimore Orioles, including 21 on the feeders simultaneously; up to 11 Orchard Orioles feeding at once; huge Rose-breasted Grosbeaks numbers; and half a dozen Evening Gosbeaks and "Gambel's White-crowned Sparrows. The latter grosbeak has slipped into the category of Ohio megararity and the pretty white-lored sparrow subspecies is very rare here.

Wow! And he gets photos of all of this stuff, too! I asked John for a few pics to share with you, and he was good enough to oblige.

Photo: John Pogacnik

Imagine a few dozen of these Halloween-colored whistlers cavorting around your feeders, at one time!

Photo: John Pogacnik

Orchard Oriole, first-year male, sometimes called "bearded males" It takes them two years to gain their reddish-brick coloration, but these youngsters sing just fine. Always make a point to run singing Orchard Orioles down to see if it's an apprentice or Master.

Photo: John Pogacnik

At one point, John heard a hubbub from some of the small songsters and glanced over to see these Eastern Screech-Owls glaring from their Wood Duck box. I mean, how good can it get!!!

With a yard like this, I'm surprised John ever leaves.

Thanks to John for regularly making photos, reports, and information available to the birding community. He is, without doubt, one of our greatest assets.

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About Me

I am a lifelong Ohioan who has made a study of natural history since the age of eight or so - longer than I can remember! A fascination with birds has grown into an amazement with all of nature, and an insatiable curiosity to learn more. One of my major ambitions is to get more people interested in nature. The more of us who care, the more likely that our natural world will survive.

About the photos, and permission to use

All photographs on these web pages are the exclusive property of Jim McCormac, and are protected under United States and International copyright laws. The photographs may not be copied, reproduced, stored, distributed or manipulated without written permission. All rights are reserved.

If you contact me requesting free photos, the reply may be long in coming :-)

I've been taking photographs for a few decades, but never became fully interested and engaged in photography until 2003. That's when I got my first digital camera. Since then, photography has become a passion and a steadily growing addiction. If you delve back far enough into this blog, you will see photos that were made with a variety of Panasonic point & shoot bridge cameras. Then came a Canon Rebel DSLR, followed by a Nikon D7000. I've since returned to Canon, and use their gear almost exclusively. My camera bodies are a Canon 5D Mark III, which is an awesome full-frame sensor camera, and a Canon 7D Mark II. The latter is a 1.6 crop factor camera, and I use it almost exclusively for birds and distant wildlife.

The lens bag includes the following Canon lenses: 100mm f/2.8L-macro; the sensational but bizarre MP-E 65 mega-macro; a 180mm f/3.5 macro; a 16-35mm f/4L wide-angle; a 50mm f/1.4; a 100-400 f4.5/5.6 II; and a 500mm f/4L II, sometimes used with a 1.4 extender (which makes it a 700mm). I've also got a Tamron 70-200mm and Sigma 24mm Art (great lenses!). I do lots of macro, and my typical flash gear is the Canon Twin-Lite setup. If the gear needs three-legged stabilization, it is mounted on an Induro tripod, attached to an Induro Gimbal head. Finally, I've got a GoPro Hero, which is fully waterproof and can be used for underwater work. Sometimes I even use the camera or video feature on my iPhone 5S smartphone - it's amazing how good phone cameras have become.

Speaking, guiding gigs 2016

NOTE: Click on listed events for details (inmost cases).

January 16, 2016 - Ohio Ornithological Society's annual winter raptor day at the Wilds, Muskingum County, Ohio. Leading field trip.